


Short Straw

by Darkprism



Series: Monoshizukanohi [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Anal, BDSM, Bondage, Dom/sub, Flogging, Gag, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Impact Play, Kink, M/M, Masochism, Monoshizukanohi, Multi, Oral, Romance, Sadism, Sex Toys, Slash, Toys, blindfold, cock and ball torture, flogger, hair porn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-29
Updated: 2014-01-29
Packaged: 2018-01-10 10:56:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1158852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkprism/pseuds/Darkprism
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All the freaks on the Monoshizukanohi streets had to learn the ropes somewhere, and for Kiba? that was a hotel room with his friends and Tenzou's handy bag of tricks. But when Kiba notices that Neji gets to Dom more than sub, he calls Neji's bluff, and for a single snowy afternoon, Kiba ends up calling the shots. Find out what happens when the Prince melts and hell freezes over.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Short Straw

Kiba Inuzuka sat in a squat, square, black swivel chair, chewing on a Twizzler and staring at the door of his apartment. Any second, now, and smoldering holes would appear from the weight of Kiba's gaze, but Kiba had a theory about near-boiling pots and anticipatory doorways. You had to freakin' watch both of them like you didn't need to blink, or the bastards would get the drop on you. And today of all days, Kiba needed the upper hand.

...upper foot... arm... cock... Anything Kiba could manage, really... Today was not the day to lose the way, 'cause Kiba might end up having to pay the ferryman early dues, come what may.

"Dude..." Kiba muttered to himself. "Nice." Kiba snatched up a pen off the top of a cardboard box serving as an end table, and he scribbled the rhyme down on one of the dozens of pads of paper scattered around his place. Kiba had a thing for verse. And rhythm. Meter and rhyme all in particular time... Kiba sucked the next inch of the licorice rope into his mouth, chewing, writing, and keeping an eyeball on the door.

It was only four in the afternoon, but already sunlight was fading toward night. Winter was one bitch with a serious hard-on for darkness, but Kiba could get behind that. Throw down some nightmares with the icicle queen. Maybe make some snowballs to sell to hell. The white stuff was coming down like it was the last chance for a blizzard. Snow stacked and gathered on the ledges of the Victorian house, long ago converted into single-bedroom units, but Kiba was sweating thanks to the fire roaring in the corner fireplace. He'd shed his shirt, opting to show off the outline of his brand-spanking new three-headed dragon chest tattoo, and the only thing he wore was a pair of old, ripped jeans. Kiba was pretty sure His Majesty the Frosty Prince of Bitchdom wouldn't appreciate Kiba's wardrobe choices, but the ass had better like that Kiba remembered to turn up the heat. Kiba's incoming guest got cold toes and a chillier nose in any climate that dipped below seventy-two degrees. Kiba did not understand the skinny fucker. Kiba burned hot, all day, every day, all the time. He didn't have an off-switch, just an emergency shut-down mode.

Chuckling and beat-boxing in the silence of his home, Kiba stopped writing out free-verse and switched to doodling a long-haired boy with eyes like a chilled lilac, and he'd just begun sketching Neji's massive _Kiba In Da House_ boner when the Prince knocked on the fucking door. Kiba flipped over the pad, dropped the pen, and reclined in the chair, hands laced behind his head. His heart jumped into his throat, his vision swam, and Kiba grinned around the taste of adrenaline. God _damn_ but he loved that shit.

"It's open!" Kiba bellowed, knowing it'd irritate Neji's sense of propriety that Kiba didn't come graciously to the door and sweepingly welcome Neji into Kiba's abode or some such formal crap. Kiba had met Neji when they'd been sixteen and fifteen, respectively, and Kiba had transferred to the Academy, the private high school for rich kids. Kiba'd known Neji, now, for going on three years, and -- _believe --_ that was plenty of time for Kiba to get a handle on most of what made Neji tick and twitch.

Neji threw open the door like it'd offended him, and he stepped into Kiba's apartment with his chin so high, he'd drown if it could rain indoors. He shut the door, threw the lock, and spun, undoing the tie of his heavy, expensive, black wool coat like Neji was dancing with his wardrobe, not wearing it. His waist-length dark brown hair was tucked into the coat's collar. Neji had a knitted cap on his oval-shaped head, thick leather gloves over his spindly fingers, dark pants on his long legs, and dress boots on his size eleven feet.

Kiba gave Neji a lingering once-over, and Kiba'd give the Prince this much: Neji and beauty made excellent partners in crime.

"You comin' from church?" Kiba asked.

Neji snorted, taking off his hat with his eyes going everywhere at once like the guy was expecting a ninja army to jump out at any moment. "Hardly," Neji said, all slow, sleepy monotone. Neji's voice was a drug, but Kiba had built up resistance.

"Too bad," Kiba said, turning his chair to match pace with Neji's stroll to the middle of Kiba's living room. "I like me a penitent man."

"I'm sure you would, if you knew the meaning of the word," Neji insulted, mildly. He tugged his gloves off one finger at a time.

"Watch your mouth, Hyuuga," Kiba warned.

"Then mind yours, Inuzuka," Neji shot back with a flash of pretty eyes and an arch of delicate brow. It seemed Kiba had struck the nerve he'd aimed to hit. Kiba grinned, and Neji shrugged out of his coat. Under it he wore a button-down shirt with long sleeves and cufflinks.

Fucking... _cufflinks._

"Is there a place to hang this so it won't be confused with your dirty laundry?" Neji asked, tucking his cap and gloves into the coat's pocket.

Kiba made a rude sound. He'd cleaned up for his guest, put all his clothes away and made his house a barren wasteland so as not to distract them from their goals. He'd even taken Akamaru over to his sister's in deference to Neji's allergies, but Neji wasn't one to appreciate Kiba's trouble or to miss an insult opportunity, especially where Kiba was concerned. Kiba had theories on that, and he was pretty damned certain Neji wouldn't like any of them.

"Sure," Kiba answered. "Closet's right there." Kiba nodded at the appropriate door on the far side of the room and, after taking a moment to realize Kiba wasn't going to hang the coat for him, Neji got a move on. Kiba watched the swing of Neji's stride and noted the rigidity of Neji's spine. On any given day, Neji was more uptight than a railway lynchpin, and today it was worse than usual. Coming from Neji's family background, which was, rumor had it, riddled with abuse and the misuse of authority, Kiba understood Neji's position.

But, as with all things Neji, there was a contradiction in the mix. Neji might be made of steel edges and dry ice, but the man could fuck like a snake-shaped demon on speed. If Kiba hadn't seen Neji in action on more than one occasion, Kiba might not believe it himself, despite what most of the Academy student body and even one or two staff members might boast. For that which was good and raw, Neji would crack and thaw.

Kiba's fingers twitched to jot that down, one more line to add to the Ode Writ of Prince Neji, but Neji began to saunter around the room. "It's not a bad space," he commented, hands in his pockets and meandering in a stroll. "Certainly big enough."

"I like spreadin' out," Kiba said. Neji walked past the bank of windows lining one wall. The apartment was spacious, all right. At least, it was for this city and for a kid not quite of Neji's means. Just under fourteen-hundred square feet, Kiba's section of the Victorian house consisted of a massive living room with front, round seating room and a kitchen tucked into the opposite rear corner. A bathroom had been created on the wall across from the kitchen. Between the two was the sliding pocket door entrance to Kiba's bedroom, which had its own fireplace and brick finishing.

"And what is this decorating style? Early sparse?" Neji asked with a smirk.

"Ain't big on furniture. Ya know that. You been here before."

"Just once," Neji said. He circled and paused in front of the kitchen doorway. "Where's your radio equipment?"

"Bedroom."

"Ah." Neji nodded and continued his walk. "You doing the short-wave casts, again?"

Kiba saw where Neji was going with this line of questioning, and headed Neji off at the insult pass. He grinned. "Gonna half to since WKDS fired my ass."

If Kiba hadn't been looking for Neji's tell, he might have missed it, but Neji flinched, just so... a tic of the shoulders and a jump of the eyebrows. Yeah, Prince Iceberg hadn't been expecting Kiba to announce his getting canned with pride. Showed what he knew.

"I heard something to that affect," Neji said.

"Eh, I was gettin' too hot for 'em. Too risqué even for a late-night DJ."

"The content was certainly varied," Neji commented.

"Fuck yeah it was." Kiba laughed. "An' don't worry, I know who I get t'thank for that part 'a my education. If you hadn't invited me to your little kink fest class, wouldn't know shit from fuck, my friend."

"Let the record show that I only invited you because Kankuro shared our secret with you," Neji said dryly.

"I got ways with persuasion," Kiba said easily, and it was absolutely true. Kankuro had been bursting at the seams about something one day near the end of their senior year at Academy. They'd been in one of the theatre's crows' nests, fixing up the gel lights for a student performance, and Kiba had gently applied pressure until Kankuro had cracked. It hadn't taken much. Kankuro had started coughing up this crazy-ass story about how Naruto Uzumaki had figured out that Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto's priss-bitch boyfriend, got off on pain. Like, _literally_ got off on it. Came squirting and screaming from getting slapped around. Never in his wildest dreams had Kiba thought Sasuke could ever be appealing, but when he'd heard that and imagined Sasuke all tied up and bleeding and begging for it, he'd gotten so hard so fast he practically heard his dick go, _SPROING!_

Anyway, Naruto had confided in Kiba's friend, Kankuro, because Kankuro dug really weird porn and wasn't shy about telling or, preferably, showing anybody and everybody. Kankuro had given Naruto some vids to watch or whatever, but meanwhile, word had gotten to Neji about what was going on. Because everything, eventually, got back to Neji's fucking pointy elf ears.

"So the other day," Kankuro had told Kiba in the pitch-black darkness of the high school theatre, "Neji comes over to us at lunch, right? And he says he knows what we're doing, that there's right and wrong ways to do it, and given Sasuke's history, we needed to be careful. Like, he's totally lecturing us, and I wasn't even fucking playing with 'em, man!"

"Playin'?" Kiba had asked, ignorant as shit.

"Yeah, it's what they like, call it. 'Playing.' Like sandboxes and toy cars, except you're putting sand in eyeballs and throwing the cars at a dude's nuts."

Kiba had laughed, fascinated. "So what did his royal assholeness do?"

"He says he's got a guy lined up to show us some stuff, teach us how to swing. That's how he put it: swing. Hey, batter, batter."

"Who's the guy?"

Kankuro had shrugged. "Some guy Neji knows from Green Dojo. Ex-military."

"Not Kakashi?" Kiba asked. He'd heard plenty of rumors about that crazy, nosy fucker.

"That's what I thought, too," Kankuro said. "Seeing as how everybody knows Neji's wanted to fuck Kakashi for years, but no. Kakashi's deployed right now."

"Huh. So Neji just meets some kinky bastard in the Dojo, and invites him to show you all how to do things right?"

"Guess so."

Kiba had whistled. "Damn. I gotta get my ass to this Dojo, and, bro, I gotta fuckin' get to this--"

"No." Kankuro had already been shaking his head.

"Oh, c'mon!"

"Bad enough I already told your sorry ass. If you show up, Neji will have my balls, and he will remove them an inch at a godamned time with a dull, cold knife!"

Kiba had rolled his eyes, and he'd taken the good-natured punch that Kankuro had delivered to his bicep for it. "I don't know why everybody's so afraid of the Prince," Kiba had said.

Kankuro had dropped a screwdriver from the crows, and it had bounced down the aisle. "You do know what his family does, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, dirty politicians, Prime Minister, whatever."

"His uncle regularly kills people, Kiba."

"Yeah, who's uncle don't? So... how can you get me in on this, man?"

Kankuro had thrown up his hands. "You can't come. You show up, I'm dead, that's it."

"Where's it gonna be goin' down?"

"Some hotel."

"Get me the name, and I'll be there. Just sorta show up, insinuate myself, and refuse to leave."

Kankuro had looked dubious at best. "What they gonna do?" Kiba had asked. "If they tell me to get the fuck out, I'll tell 'em I'll share what they're up to. Neji ain't fuckin' eighteen, yet. An' I'm bettin' the military dude ain't south 'a thirty. Even if nobody gets fucked, shit's still illegal with minors, and I bet Uncle Dearest won't like that shit. Or that his prodigy nephew is gayer than a tweetin' canary in sequins."

Kankuro had stared at Kiba with wide, beady eyes. "You... are a crazy motherfucker."

"Yeh, so I heard. Now, what's the damned hotel's name, bitch?"

It'd been easy from there. Kiba had gotten the info, shown up at the appropriate place and time, and the second Neji had seen Kiba, he'd gotten that rare, delicious look that screamed, _Well, fuck, I've been had._ Kiba hadn't needed to resort to threats at all, much to Kankuro's relief and less to Kiba's, but that's how Kiba'd met Tenzou Asashi, an ex-marine turned architect who liked shaping wood into Saint Andrew's crosses, among other things. Tenzou and Tenzou's partner, Jack, Naruto, Sasuke, Kankuro, Neji, and Kiba had all gone into a hotel room at the Magnolia to learn about everything from autoerotic asphyxiation to zookeeping fetishes, and if that hadn't been insane enough, Kiba had also met Neji's... friend... A cross-dressing professional boytoy named Raquelle who used to run with a gang called the Saints. How the hell the two had met or what, exactly, Neji and Raquelle were to one another wasn't clear, though Kiba was pretty convinced that Raquelle was a project for Neji; somebody to save. Neji's god complex was bigger than his collection of Miss Manners Handbooks and his vanity combined.

After that first night at Hotel Mags, Kiba had been officially part of the kinky collective. They'd all met up at least once a week pretty much every week ever since, and when they had the basics of tools and safety down, they'd started to draw lots and pair up to practice. They didn't do that every time they got together, because Neji had Raquelle and Naruto had Sasuke and Tenzou had Jack. Kiba and Kankuro fit one another pretty damned well, but Jack, always clear on what he wanted and how, had made it plain that Kiba was always... always... welcome to join Jack and Tenzou's games. Kankuro, too, if he had to take one with the other.

But they all knew they'd be doing Scene shit with people who weren't their partners at some point, or, at least, they all hoped that'd be the case, so swapping eventually came up, as did switching roles in existing partnerships. Drawing lots when they wanted to change things up had seemed the fairest way to go, though everyone quickly realized that putting Sasuke in any sort of power position made for a stressed out Sasbitch and a nervous bottom. It wasn't that Sas couldn't handle it, exactly, but being responsible for himself was rough enough on most days for the kid. Now Naruto usually accompanied any of Sasuke's playdates, and that went pretty well.

Neji had waited and exacted his revenge on Kankuro's ass for spilling the beans to Kiba, and it'd been fucking beautiful. Over the months, Kiba had seen his friends do shit to one another that had been previously beyond his wildest dreams. Hell, he'd _done_ shit to his friends that he never had thought possible to do and still have a civil conversation the next day that didn't involve getting served with a restraining order. And everybody had been combined pretty evenly... except for Neji.

Be it luck or rigging the draw, Neji tended to draw the dom card four-to-one over the sub card. Nobody really seemed to mind, because Neji was damned good at what he did. Neji and his complexes took to mastering another human being like a bear to a honey pot, and it was, Kiba had to admit, kind of beautiful to watch Neji master the shit out of Sasuke in less than two minutes flat, when Naruto couldn't do the same if you gave him two years. Oh, God, but Naruto had pouted about that crap. For weeks.

On the rare occasions Neji did sub, he'd bottomed for Tenzou, Kankuro, Raquelle, and even Naruto, but not Kiba. Now, Kiba had served his ass up to Neji on numerous occasions, and it'd been hot and fun and left Kiba with all the good kinds of bruises and abrasions. Neji didn't like to roll as hard as Tenzou or Naruto, but with proper encouragement, the guy eventually let go and let out the roaring beast within. Cap that shit off with Neji's cock sunk balls deep in Kiba's ass, and damn, man, they'd had themselves some fine times.

See, Kiba didn't care which side he was on, usually. He could always find a grin in the sins of mayhem, but after months of rolling around in the crazy, it'd started to wear thin on Kiba that Neji seemed to get special privileges. Especially since Kiba was salivating at the mouth and dick to get the chance to knock over Neji's pride and get a shot at Neji's sweet ass. Kiba fucking loved a challenge. He liked it better when the challenge was rooted in history and hardship. That tended to make Kiba sound like a real prick when he said that out loud, but Kiba didn't mean it that way. It was just that he'd had an easy damned life. He thought he was kind of boring, really, but he found people fascinating. Especially complicated, twisted, dark, disturbed, and kinky people. The more intricate, the better, and in their little group, Neji was at the top of the list for fucking intricate.

So, one day when they'd all gotten together and been about to draw straws, Kiba had spoken up about his concerns and irritations. Loudly. Pointedly. And at great length. It'd been amazing to watch what happened after Kiba had dropped his bomb: "Neji don't sub as much as the rest of us do. Maybe he's fuckin' scared or maybe he's just a fuckin' cheat."

Neji had turned purple and pink, apoplectic in his pissed-off fit. Once Kiba'd let that cat out of the bag, the rest of the room had sunk their teeth into the Prince's flesh, calling him out and giving Neji the third degree. To Neji's credit, he'd merely shrugged it off with a toss of his hair. When the commotion had died down, and when Tenzou had asked if Neji was, in fact, truly uncomfortable with something, Neji had snorted in that high-brow way of his and said the sweetest little words Kiba'd ever heard:

"Of course not, and if Kiba's so offended, then I'll make my amends to him. No lots for us. I'm with him, and I'll serve."

"So you'll sub?" Kiba had pressed while the rest of the room had looked at Kiba like he'd been nuts for pushing his luck. They didn't seem to understand that Kiba made his luck by living on the edge.

"Serve," Neji corrected. "Yes."

"What, you don't like the word, 'sub'?"

"That's enough, Kiba," Tenzou had decreed, and even Kiba was smart enough to let it go at that point.

And that, boys and girls, was how he'd ended up with an anxious Hyuuga circling his apartment, looking for a way out. "And you think the persuasive skills that earned you a right to new research material and games to play will get you back your job?" Neji asked.

"Yeah, they'll ask me back. 'Cause not only was I gettin' fuckin' dirty and raw, I was also gettin' good."

"You're so sure?"

Kiba stretched, rocking and crossing one leg so his ankle rested on the opposite knee. "DJ Stryke and Open Line is the biggest shit to hit this city since gang wars, and I don't gotta kill nobody to make _my_ point." Kiba laughed. "Ever since Kankers got me hooked up with his boy at the station, I been doin' the short waves here. I just transferred all my on-air material to the big boys when they gave me the shot. They say I got a face for radio." Kiba winked at Neji, but Neji didn't take the chance to launch another barb.

Instead, Neji frowned and kept his peace. Kiba made mental note and went back to running his mouth. "Ever since I made up Stryke, I been handin' out stickers and posters 'n shit. Jus' the other fuckin' day I saw a goddamned cab with 'BITE ME MONOSHIZUKANOHI' on the fuckin' bumper. A cab, man! So yeah, I think I'm good enough to get invited back, and if I ain't? I'll do my thing from here and get better shit to do it with. I can always go work for the family biz, get some cash."

"How are your parents?" Neji asked.

"They're fine, thanks. They opened another Stuff for Paws closer to the Fashion District."

"I wasn't aware that pet food stores met the District's requirements."

"Naw, they spruced up the storefront and changed up the inventory. Sellin' like, diamonds for poodles and bullshit." Kiba shrugged. "Whatever. Dad's happy, Mom's busy, and nobody bothers me 'bout what I may or may not be doin' right in life." Kiba dropped his hands to the chair's armrests, drumming his fingers. "We gonna get down to business or what?"

"My uncle is well, thank you for asking," Neji said pointedly.

"How nice for him. So that's a 'no' to business, now, I guess?"

"And Raquelle's fine, too. In good health."

Kiba sighed. "A'right then. We can chat. I got all day."

Neji continued ignoring Kiba. "He's thinking of enrolling in college next term, joining me at MU. At my rate, I'll be done a year early, but..." Neji shrugged. He'd almost made the entire loop, but he'd slowed down as he approached the offset room to the right of the main door. In the olden days, the fourteen-by-fourteen round room had been a sitting area. Kiba had transformed it by boarding up the windows and hanging black curtains over the entrance into the room.

"You always was a smart one," Kiba commented.

Neji frowned. "Have you noticed that Jack isn't looking altogether like himself, lately?"

Kiba briefly shut his eyes, gnashed his teeth, and tried to find patience. "Look, Nej, I appreciate the info 'bout the family and Jack and yer boyfriend, and all, but--"

"Raquelle isn't my boyfriend," Neji said, and there was a pitch to his tone that derailed Kiba off-topic.

"Okay, well... _girl_ friend or lover or what--"

"We're friends, really. Just friends."

Kiba snorted. "Friends who beat each other 'n fuck?"

Neji's hand darted up to his face, and he tucked hair behind his ear. It was one of Neji's most obvious nervous-as-all-shades-of-hell tells. "I suppose."

"Yeah?" Kiba leaned forward in his chair. "What else do you suppose?"

Neji had been resolutely staring toward the rear of the apartment, but his eyes slid along the floor toward Kiba's bare feet. "I... _suppose_... that I'm not in love with him."

"An' this is important?" Kiba asked.

"It's a revelation recently come to my attention."

Kiba was lost in left field on a tight rope suspended over an alligator pit, and he was fucking happy as shit to be there. "Okay... so what brought it up? The revelation?"

Neji didn't say a thing for a freakin' eternity, and Kiba let the guy weigh the options at his own pace. Neji was a smart dude. Sooner rather than later, he'd come to the conclusion that there was no graceful way out of this line of questioning because Neji had brought it all upon himself.

And sure enough, Kiba's suppositions paid off. "I seem to have acquired feelings for someone in the outreaches of our... in-group," Neji said.

"Jesus. Does that mean you want to bang one of our friends?"

"In your vernacular, yes."

"Is it me?"

Neji's eyes snapped to Kiba's and widened. "Christ, no."

Kiba burst into laughter. "A'right, then. Good." Kiba shrugged off Neji's incredulous expression. "Look, I don't gotta fuckin' love you to hurt you. I just gotta like you a little and know yer the right kind 'a crazy."

"Such attitude does suit you," Neji said.

"A'yup, it do. So." Kiba got up and smiled at Neji. "Take your mind off the poor schmuck you think is too good fer ya?"

"What makes you think I think..." Neji paused. "Why do you say that?"

"'Cause if you thought you could tag 'im, you'd be in 'im by now. Or her. However you wanna fuckin' roll."

Neji surprised Kiba by laughing, but it was a sad, sorry sort of laugh. "Kiba, one of these days... you are going to find someone who changes you... and I can only hope to be there and watch the miracle happen."

Kiba seriously doubted he'd find the kind of challenging person who'd not only hold Kiba's interest, but who might also, somehow, not notice that Kiba was one hell of an uphill battle, himself. Picky, belligerent, irritatingly good at ferreting things out of people, opinionated, rough, worked odd hours and wasn't heading for the main stream huge job... Not to mention a fucking pervert and a guy determined in the kind of way that might get Kiba killed or at least find him standing in the middle of Danger Road, naked and covered in neon paint. "Well, if 'n when that happens, I'll let ya know," Kiba said. "Fact, I'll let the whole goddamned city know. Broadcast it 'n shit, a'ight? Jus' to make sure yer up to speed."

Neji smirked. "Deal."

"Cool. Now. Let's talk 'bout you, 'cause that playroom ain't gettin' any warmer." Kiba nodded at the curtained-off room, and Neji, who had managed not to glance that way even once so far, finally gave it a disgusted twist of his lips.

"Fine," Neji said, coming closer to Kiba. As Neji passed, he lingered long enough to speak directly into Kiba's ear. "Let's chat," Neji said, and kept on walking.

Kiba had no idea what the hell Neji's deal was or why he took such offense at Kiba being in power, and it took everything Kiba had not to grab the damn man and kiss, grope, fuck that holier-than-thou look off Neji's face. But that would get Kiba nothing for the trouble but a right hook, so Kiba sat down again, facing Neji, who sat on the arm of Kiba's old sofa. The position put Neji physically higher than Kiba, and Kiba wanted to bellow in frustration. Jesus Himself didn't stand a chance at loosening this bitch up, much less Kiba.

"No pain, no metal restraints, no coarse rope, no marks, no fire, no needles, no hands behind my back..."

Neji kept listing off particulars, but Kiba stopped listening. Neji spoke like he'd figured out the three things in the universe he was willing to do with Kiba and had memorized the no-go speech. So Kiba stopped trying to figure out Neji with his eyes or ears and started using his nose and his guts.

It'd been years and years ago, now, that Kiba had figured out his ability to scent people: intuit shit about them based on the way they smelled. Call it a summation of body language or call it alien psychic ability or whatever you wanted to label it, Kiba knew things about some people that other people didn't see or couldn't figure out, and Kiba learned those things with his nose. It didn't work on everybody, and when it did work, it couldn't be fine-tuned crap, nothing real subtle. The stuff Kiba could gleam had to be obvious. Anger ready to boil over or depression ready to make a man loose his marbles or, as Kiba most often used it, lust ready to jump the line from sincere interest to desperate measures. Sure, some of that stuff was easy for anybody to see, but sometimes what Kiba smelled were the things people tried desperately to hide.

Kiba had never thought he was crazy, because his family knew too much about animal behavior for him to think what he could do was completely outside the realm of sane. Apparently, it wasn't even that uncommon. A lot of people could actually detect shifts in body chemistry -- it aided the brain in fight or flight mode, and it was evolutionarily beneficial -- but most idiots didn't know what they were doing. Kiba made it his business to fucking know. He was no dog with a schnoz that could smell bacon dropped on the floor a year ago or anything like that, but Kiba did have more nostril ability than most. So did his mom, and oh man, had that ever been annoying growing up.

But the cool thing and the confusing thing was that everybody smelled differently. Some states of being smelled similarly. For instance, depression was always rotten and anger was always spicy. Arousal took a little longer to pinpoint, but it was usually polite enough to be the most obvious of the spectrum. Say Kiba was sitting next to some cute kid on the subway. Kid thought Kiba was hot, started thinking about fucking. Suddenly, all Kiba would smell was oranges. Or the salt of the ocean. Lemongrass. Mint. Pumpkin. Something completely random in a place where it shouldn't be: that was lust.

Neji, of course, had to be an irritatingly subtle fucker when it came to his phernomes. It wouldn't do for the Prince of the realm to be easy, oh but no. When Neji got turned on, he didn't smell like fruit or food or even swamp water. Nah, Neji was too cool for that.

Neji... smelled... _clean_. Pure. Not quite soap, not quite detergent... more like fresh laundry off the line. It wasn't antiseptic like one would suppose; not winter incarnate or fresh-fallen snow. No, Neji when aroused wasn't wintery at all. He was spring time. Warm. Sunshine with a hint of butterfly garden.

For the longest time, Kiba supposed Neji was just an overly hygienic kind of guy, and Neji's cologne -- that expensive French crap -- covered the natural scent enough that it'd been a bitch to separate it out. Kiba had nailed it in the Magnolia Hotel room, though, and once he'd identified the scent, there wasn't anything a body could do to hide it from Kiba.

So when they'd been planning out where and how to get together and play, Kiba had, in a moment of rare brilliance, requested that Neji not wear cologne. He'd used the same excuse Neji did about Kiba's dog -- shit gave him the sniffles.

Which was why, as Kiba sat across from a perching Neji trying to dictate the evening's plans within an inch of their everloving life, Kiba was thoroughly distracted by the wafting waves of spring linen that were positively flowing off of Neji. There was a sensate flood going down in Kiba's living room, and it liked to drown Kiba.

On one hand, that could just be Neji getting off on controlling circumstance or it could be Neji's response to Scene in general. Kiba's gut, however, which was even sharper than his nose, told Kiba that Neji's want didn't have to do with dictating orders or proximity to leather straps. It didn't even really have to do with Kiba, although that was a healthy portion of it. See, the really useful thing about being trapped in a room with seven other men with raging hard-ons and kinky missions was that Kiba got to smell when the scents spiked. And Neji's had spiked when he'd been in control, oh abso-fucking-lutely, but it had also spiked when Neji _wasn’t_ in power.

Which made him oh-so-very interesting. A bright white _ping_ on Kiba's radar.

"... and no breath play. We won't be doing edge anything." Neji finally paused for air. "Get all that, Inuzuka?"

"Mm."

"You seem distracted."

"Mm," Kiba grunted again, contemplating strategy. Direct would probably be best. Neji didn't do well with direct. It ripped Neji's well-laid intentions out by the short hairs. Kiba could take a page out of Jack's book and just cut through Neji's protests like Jack did with Tenzou's.

"You're not exactly boosting my confidence in you, Kiba," Neji droned.

"Yeah." Kiba looked Neji dead square. "Neji?"

"Yes?"

"What the fuck do you want?"

Neji went on the wary defensive. "I beg your pardon?"

"All that's shit you don't want. Don't like. Don't want me to do. Don't want nothin' to do with. Okay. Cool. How 'bout you tell me what you do fuckin' want?"

Without even missing a beat, Neji answered: "I want to make good on my promise to come here today to serve you so that you'll stop publically accusing me of being a manipulative coward."

Kiba couldn't control his sneer. "So I can keep sayin' it in private, then?"

"Fuck you."

"An' you are manipulative."

Neji vibrated, and Kiba would swear Neji's hair sucked static out of the air and used it to stand on end. "I do what I must," Neji said tightly.

"Mmhm, an' yer a fuckin' coward."

Neji shot up and onto his feet. "Excuse me?"

"Ya want somethin' and ya ain't tellin' me--"

"I told you what I wanted," Neji hissed.

"Nah." Kiba kept his seat, smiling up at Neji. "Ya want somethin' else."

"I assure you, I do not."

"Yer lyin'."

"And what would you know of it?" Neji snarled. He clenched his fists, but there was an uneasiness about his eyes, almost a pleading buried in there somewhere, and Kiba homed in on it.

"Dunno," Kiba said quietly. "But it smells nice."

Neji's shoulders dropped, body sagging, and his face formed a mask of cynical, flummoxed disgust. "Oh grow up, Kiba. Batman and Santa Claus are myths, just like your nose thing. Nobody believes that shit, most of all, I hope to God, you." Neji stalked away, heading for the closet.

"Fine, get on out 'a here, then, but this is yer last chance," Kiba called, slowly standing and sliding his hands into his pockets.

"Go to hell." Neji slammed the closet door, and Kiba held his ground, facing away from Neji.

"I can give you what ya want," Kiba said.

"Apparently not."

"Nah, I mean what ya really want."

"You don't even know what that is."

"So there is somethin', eh? Who's got it all wrong now, Prince?"

Neji let go of a put-upon sigh. "Someday you'll learn the difference between confidence and egotism, Kiba, but I have no desire to instruct you today."

"It ain't egotism," Kiba replied, and he couldn't help but notice that Neji hadn't gone for the door. "I know I got a shot, and you know it, too." He felt drunk, his pulse was racing so fast. The risk he was taking, here, was huge, and he knew it, but he had a feeling it'd be completely worth it if his scatter-shot plan managed to work, somehow.

Kiba was in full-on sweat mode by the time Neji spoke again, and the sound came from a different point in the room. Damned sneaky, silent bastard. "You think you know something about me, Inuzuka?"

Neji's purr was dangerous, and Kiba's balls decided to pipe up and mention that they liked their position attached to Kiba's person, and really didn't want to be removed, and everything in Neji's voice indicated that violent separation was imminent. Kiba told the dudes to calm their hairy tits. He had this under control. Sort of. "Ya. I fuckin' do know somethin'."

"And what is that, exactly?"

"I know that ya ain't wanted me 'n you paired up in any way that don't involve me at your fuckin' mercy." Kiba did, actually, know that was a true statement, but all the same, he was babbling out of his ass, now, and the ice was getting thin to the point of brittle.

But when Neji didn't have any witty comebacks, Kiba deliberately rolled his shoulders, crossed his arms, and appeared the epitome of mildly irked and mostly disinterested. "An' I know yer obey-me-bitch bluster is all for fuckin' show. At least it is today, here, and with me. An'--"

Kiba didn't even hear him coming or understand what the hell it was that Neji did. All Kiba knew was that his balance went bye-bye, he went airborn, he hit the floor with a painful slam that drove air out of his lungs, and suddenly he had a face-full of scowling Neji.

"Goddamn it, Hyuuga," Kiba cursed, but it was nothing more than a breathy wheeze.

"No part of me is just show," Neji growled at Kiba. He was sort of perched on top of Kiba, and they glared one another down for the few seconds it took for Kiba to regain wits. The instant Kiba had them, he pitched to the left, slamming Neji onto the rug and covering Neji with all his weight. Neji didn't fight him, which was weird, but Kiba was too grateful to think too much about his luck.

"The hell is wrong with you?" Kiba barked. "Yer a fuckin' pain on a good day, but this is fuckin' ridiculous, Nej. Yer actin' like goddamned Sasuke for Chrissakes." Kiba searched Neji's face for a full count of ten, but Neji's lips were set in a thin line.

"Fine," Kiba said, bracing to get up. "Get outta here, then. You don't want t'be here? I don't fuckin' want you to be, neither."

Kiba shoved toward upright, but Neji grabbed Kiba by the thin, silver chain Kiba wore around his neck. Kiba stopped, gave Neji a long look that he hoped composed sonnets of his irritation, and started to get up, anyway, favorite necklace be damned, but Neji hooked fingers through Kiba's belt loop.

"Really? We doin' this now?" Kiba took hold of Neji's wrist, but Neji wrapped one leg around Kiba's so Kiba couldn't bend that knee. "The fuck, Neji?"

Neji grunted at Kiba, and he knocked an elbow into the bend of Kiba's arm. Kiba went sprawling, and when he did, Neji rocked up and into Kiba, one hand in Kiba's hair and the other tangled at the waist of Kiba's jeans. Neji's shirt was silky against Kiba's bare chest. Neji's fingers were actually gentle against Kiba's scalp. He smelled like linen lust and rosemary mint shampoo, his cheek was remarkably stubble-free against Kiba's, and Neji's breathing hitched right in Kiba's ear when Neji pulsed upward again, rubbing himself against Kiba's hip.

Kiba... was only fucking human.

"Neji..." Kiba whispered, rolling with the changing tides. He stopped fighting Neji and busied himself with planting kisses to the juncture of throat to jaw. "C'mon, man. I ain't the enemy, here. Just tell me..."

After a long, distracting moment, Kiba got his answer: "I've not subbed before," Neji murmured into Kiba's neck.

"Sure ya have," Kiba said, and Neji gave him enough slack to get a forearm on the ground so he could meet Neji's eyes. Neji shook his head, almost sadly, and Kiba started to explain to Neji that getting tied to one of Tenzou's bondage towers and being tag-teamed by Jack and Tenzou while getting sucked off by Raquelle definitely qualified, but then Kiba got it.

"You ain't fallen into space before," Kiba said. Neji dropped his eyes, and Kiba stared at his fingers touching Neji's face and tracing Neji's cheek, wondering when his brain had given them permission to do that. "Not even with Raquelle?" Kiba asked softly.

"No. Always been in groups... we don't do the Scene stuff by ourselves."

"But you didn't want to play with me at the hotel with the group. You wanted to come... here... to be with me..." Realizations struck Kiba in a storm of ground-to-brain lightning. "Oh," he said, and watched his hand move from Neji's cut-glass cheekbone to the front of Neji's throat.

"Yeah," Neji whispered.

"You wanted to... be here so..." Kiba swallowed a grunt that was almost a groan.

"Not going to back down from your claim now, are you?" Neji asked, his gaze canting to Kiba's.

"Hell no. I don't back down from anythin'." Kiba petted Neji's Adam's Apple with his thumb, and Neji's eyelashes flickered. Kiba's cock throbbed in his jeans, and he made sure Neji could feel that Kiba was made of iron and steel, and it was all for Neji. Kiba caught Neji's chin and tipped it just enough for Neji to feel the grip. "But you still gotta say the words."

Neji licked his lips, rubbing them together to wet them evenly. "Didn't think they'd be so hard."

"Go on 'n try," Kiba encouraged, letting go of Neji's face and starting to undo the topmost button of Neji's shirt.

"I want..." Neji began, but he trailed off, faltering with a quickened breath.

Kiba noticed, but he was distracted by what he discovered Neji had on beneath the button-down. Kiba worked his way to mid-chest, and he pushed aside the outer fabric to caress the black mesh Neji wore under it. The weave was tiny, satin to the touch, and it clung to Neji's hairless, bare skin like a second coating of pretty, pale paint.

"What's this?" Kiba murmured, rhetorical, and he made quick work of the rest of Neji's shirt, flipping the tails aside to expose Neji in meshed glory. The undershirt was sleeveless, and it stopped at Neji's navel. Kiba traced his fingertips all over it, swirling up to Neji's nipple. Neji's hips twitched, thrusting into the air.

"Fuck, Nej..." Kiba scooted higher and worked a hand into Neji's hair. God, but it was thick and soft and felt really fucking good wrapped around his fingers. Kiba pulled, just a little, and he kept his other hand wandering all over Neji's torso, fascinated by the feel of the shirt and by the way Neji's breathing had picked up, even from such simple treatment.

"C'mon..." Kiba said, staring at Neji and watching Neji's pupils get wider and wider. "Ya know this ain't the hard part... tellin' me..."

"No?" Neji asked, all rasp and grit, sand against stone.

"Nah... Sayin' you'd be mine in that hotel room... that was hard." Kiba rubbed his knuckles over Neji's lower abs, and the muscles jumped. "Gettin' all dolled up for me 'fore you came on over t'face the me 'n the music..."

"I didn't," Neji contradicted, eyelids at half-mast and dick straining against his zipper.

"Ya did," Kiba insisted, and as he spoke, he leaned evermore closer, until his nose was against Neji's cheek. "An' it's good. It's sweet. I like it. I like you. I like ya here, I like ya under me. I like ya wantin' me 'n this, and I like you tellin' me... sayin' the words... they be easy, now, 'cause it's me... an' you know me. You know I'll be good to you and for you, give ya what ya want, what ya fuckin' need... 'n it all starts..." Kiba hovered his palm over Neji's groin, not touching but feeling the heat. "When you say..."

Neji's breath rushed out his nose, and he gulped around a low sound. He got a hand around the back of Kiba's neck, pressing them closer, and Kiba went along for the ride, mostly on top of Neji with his forearms to either side. Neji blew in Kiba's ear, chest rising and falling faster and faster until Kiba thought it might crack, and teeth dragged on Kiba's earlobe and fingers clutched at his back.

"Undo me," Neji said, each syllable a ton of coal dumped into Kiba's greedy furnace. The world narrowed to words and bodies and stoking fires. "Whatever it takes, whatever you need... make me fall, make it... make it hurt, make me honest... and then get me the fuck off."

"Oh..." Kiba sucked a lung full of clean springtime. "You got it."

Their mouths didn't meet; they slammed into one another. Teeth and hands and nails and wrestling limbs, Kiba tore at Neji's clothing. Metal clinked across the floorboards, and there went the cufflinks. Fabric ripped, and Neji wouldn't be wearing that pair of underwear again. Neji wasn't complaining, too busy clawing off a sock. Kiba threw one of Neji's shoes, and the men rolled into the sofa. The thing skidded, and Kiba got himself handfuls of Neji's bare ass, rolling the man into Kiba. He left Neji's mesh shirt on, and it was slippery, the contrast to Neji's skin just incredible. Neji's hair was everywhere, shrouding Kiba, and Neji's kisses may have started out silent, but now they were ending with little grunts and groans.

Kiba slapped a hold on Neji's wrist when Neji began to reach for Kiba's cock. "Nah," Kiba whispered, shoving, landing, and hauling Neji to his feet. "We got somewhere t'be." Kiba wrapped Neji's hair around his forearm and hand, and he fisted Neji's dick with the other one. Yanking and stroking, Kiba started to walk Neji backward toward the playroom's curtains, and Kiba had to focus on making sure Neji didn't trip. Neji, for his part, managed to be graceful even when hunched forward so Kiba wouldn't remove a chunk of his scalp and with his mouth hanging open and forehead scrunched thanks to Kiba's hand wringing Neji's dick.

Neji's backside met curtain, and they tangoed into the front room. Kiba had it lit with low-watt multi-colored bulbs: a stained glass kaleidoscope effect. He'd nailed the fixtures into the walls, high up and down low to give the space some atmosphere. Kiba had designs and plans for furniture, but money and space were serious issues. Thankfully, when you knew a guy like Tenzou, those concerns weren't so hard to work around. Kiba had a plastic bin of toys, all fresh and clean and ready. He had a bucket full of rubbers and lube and a bin for trash. He kept a first aid kit nailed to the baseboards, and there were blankets and fluffy things stacked in a chair. Kiba had a custom bench that Tenzou had helped him make, and it sat against the wall. Kiba had rigged eyebolts everywhere that could take weight, and he'd put in a metal beam fixed to support struts in the ceiling as well as the floor, and one wall. He'd welded metal rings up and down the thing, and all that had sufficed until Tenzou made Kiba the Snowflake. It looked like a narrow Saint Andrews, except there were three criss-crossed beams, not two. So three arms fanned out at the top, they all narrowed to the middle joining point, and three beams stuck out at the bottom. It looked, to Kiba, anyway, like a skinny wooden snowflake, hence the name. The sucker was affixed to the wall with three support bars, and Kiba had added a couple more pieces of wood attached to the lowest support bar so that a long piece came out and away from the Snowflake. It was handy if Kiba didn't want a victim slap-smack against the thing. He could chain hands above, yank lower half out, and tie the poor bastards with feet apart and ass or groin at the ready.

The curtain fell shut behind them with a whisper, and Kiba tried to think of what in the hell he could do to Neji to break the guy's connection to reality. "Ya got a pretty cock, ya know that?" Kiba asked.

"Nice of you to notice," Neji said, all nice and even, but Kiba heard hints of the sleep-angry notes that people who were starting to lose it often had. It was like talking to somebody who was still half-unconscious and asking you for five more minutes of snooze. Used to freak Kiba right out until he figured out what was going on.

"Oh I fuckin' noticed, a'right," Kiba said, running his mouth while his eyes darted around the room. The hell should he do? Where the hell to start... Kiba spun Neji around, arm across Neji's throat and hand still working down below. Neji's head went back onto Kiba's shoulder, and Kiba gave into the urge to kiss Neji's cheek, sweet-like. "All slim, sleek, and deep-seekin'... Mm. Ya like to fuck pretty boys 'n girls with this cock?" Kiba glanced from the bin to the Snowflake. Maybe... he could...

"You fucking know I do," Neji murmured, smiling with his eyes closed.

Kiba husked a laugh. "Oh, I know what ya fuckin' like. Get 'em on their knees, sprayin' on their faces, markin' and ownin' while they beg to come."

" _Mmmah..."_ Neji's grunt ended on a sigh, his lips parting to let it out. He turned his head toward Kiba, and on the close-quarters angle, Kiba saw Neji's lashes lift until a slit of blue-purple-silver eyeball peered at him. "You going to tie me up and worship my dick, Kiba?" Neji asked, arrogant and horny with a hint of hopeful.

Kiba licked the side of Neji's face, let Neji go, and shoved him toward the Snowflake. "Naw," Kiba answered while Neji stumbled and made it look like he meant to do that shit. "But I ain't opposed to you askin' me nicely for it."

"Asshole," Neji muttered.

"Yeah, you got a nice one 'a those, too." Kiba swore he saw Neji's hand start to creep backward, like he was going to cover said nice bodypart and keep it out of harm's way. Kiba grinned. "Arms over ya head, sweetheart. Hands on the beams, there."

Reluctantly and obviously biting back retorts, Neji obeyed. The instant his hands were on the Snowflake, Kiba whirled to the plastic bin for the pair of cuffs with the chain length attached. He didn't know if he'd need to turn Neji or not, but he wanted the option of flexibility, and Kiba tossed aside Velcro cuffs, thigh cuffs, ankle cuffs...

"Kiba?" Neji asked, all honey liquor.

"Yah?"

"Looking for these?"

Kiba spun in his crouch, and saw Neji with both hands still on the beams as ordered, but he had a single finger through the ring of one of the cuffs Kiba needed. They were attached on the backside of the Snowflake. Kiba had probably put them there when he was preparing the room so he'd have them at the ready. And then promptly forgotten. Damn ADD all to hell...

"Huh." Kiba rose, enduring Neji's sickening smirk. Casually, Kiba unhooked the clasp and reattached the two cuffs on their slender chains to a ring on the front side of the central beam. "Thanks, man," Kiba said cheerfully.

"Happy to help," Neji said smugly.

"Good." Kiba dropped the smile, the niceties, and he put bite and volume into his words. "Put yer hands up. Higher. In easy reach 'a the cuffs. On the central beam." Neji quickly did as told on what Kiba thought was autopilot. Excellent.

"Spread yer legs," Kiba ordered, unbuckling one of the cuffs. He got it open and grabbed Neji by the scruff, bending Neji toward him. "Now hold fuckin' still."

Kiba shoved Neji out of his grasp, and Neji clung to the wooden strut. Kiba made fast work getting on the first cuff, cinching it, testing it, and knocking Neji's hand off the beam so it dangled. Kiba stepped around Neji, reaching for Neji's other wrist, and Kiba saw the way Neji was staring at his own wrist in the leather. There was disbelief, there, and fascination.

Pausing for a fraction of a second, memories flew through Kiba's mind of every time he'd seen Neji getting bound. Now, Tenzou didn't mind taking time with the bindings, but he usually went faster with Neji. And that, Kiba had always assumed, was because when Neji was getting trussed, he always looked like he'd swallowed a handful of centipedes. Sort of determined to swallow and horrified of the mouthful. Kiba, much like Tenzou, Kiba had to think, had figured the expression meant Neji was enduring the binding to get to the rest of the show. Or just... enduring the entire show, in general, as Neji, though he didn't complain when he had to bottom, was never what Kiba would call thrilled about it, either.

Then Kiba thought about the way Sasuke looked at cuffs. Even before they were on the guy, Sasuke would gaze at those things like a fat kid slobbering at a bakery window. There was fixation in Sasuke's eyes, and also... fascination.

Still connecting the dots, Kiba encircled Neji's free wrist not with the cuff, but with Kiba's hand. Kiba petted the skin, stroked it lovingly and gently, and Neji's head slowly swung to watch what Kiba was doing. A flush broke over Neji's nose and cheeks, brightened his neck and headed for his chest. His dick throbbed fuller where it'd fallen soft in the waiting game, and Kiba got a surge of understanding that bordered on the orgasmic.

"Don't you worry..." Kiba said quietly but firmly, and he took his sweet fucking time wrapping Neji's wrist in the cuff. He didn't buckle it, he squeezed it, let Neji feel it, and Neji jerked, minutely, but there. "We're gonna go slow." Kiba rested a palm on Neji's ass, but kept the weight light. "So very... fuckin'... slow..." Kiba dragged his palm up Neji's back, over Neji's shoulder, and along Neji's arm to the cuff. "Don't want you to miss a single thing..."

Kiba started to buckle Neji in, and Neji blew a single breath that was harsher than the ones before it, and he held the next one in his lungs. His eyes were getting glassy, and an unexpected spike of tenderness tore through Kiba. That was new. Kiba didn't have that with Kankuro or Naruto or, God help him, Sasuke. Kiba had felt inklings of it with Jack, but it was friendlier.

This... was more... sincere, and it knocked the wind out of Kiba. He secured Neji's wrist, let it fall with a clink of chain, and Kiba tucked Neji's hair behind Neji's ear. Neji glanced in Kiba's direction, frowned, and resolutely stared at the beam in front of him. He started to breathe, deep and even and meditative, trying to regain control of himself, and Kiba had to think fast.

What was it that Tenzou said? That shit about how we do unto others what we wish done to ourselves... even when a scene was laid out to the nines for a sub with little wriggle room, the person in charge could and would add personal flare. Maybe getting hung by the toenails and caned by bamboo wasn't the dom's thing at all, but he'd put a spin on it that was both personal touch and style, but also, in many cases, tells of desire. People who played long enough together knew all the shades of gray between what one did for one's sub, what one did in the name of art, and what one did because the person doing it... liked it.

Kiba may not have played with Neji like this before, but he fucking _knew_ Neji. And Kiba had seen Neji do unto others plenty of times: all compliments and mind games and sensation play that liked to drive a person crazy. And so, it was with that in mind that Kiba tossed the plan to dive into chaos and confuse Neji's senses out the window. Neji'd been beaten black and blue before Kiba's very eyes. That shit didn't work.

Instead, Kiba slid so his front pressed against the back of Neji's legs and ass, and he pushed the pads of his fingers from Neji's temples into Neji's hair, massaging the scalp. Neji went positively statue-like, frozen and forgetting to breathe again. Kiba rested his elbows on Neji's shoulders, and he hummed. "Yer cock ain't the only pretty thing 'bout you, but you know that."

Neji sort of... hiccoughed with his entire body. Like he was trying to jumpstart the engines, but couldn't quite get them to turn over. "Yeah," Kiba continued in a low, lazy drone. "All this hair... fuckin' gorgeous... so long. Can't help but think that a man who keeps hair like this gotta love it played with..." Kiba raked fingers through Neji's strands, and Neji made a soft sound that got Kiba's blood pumping hotter and swifter and southward. "Maybe likes it pulled..." Kiba gave an experimental tug, thinking of all the times he'd heard Neji moan when somebody had the Prince by the scalp.

When Neji didn't make a sound, though, Kiba grunted, thoughtful. "Huh... maybe harder, then?" he nearly whispered, following his own suggestion. "Maybe... just... fuckin'... bend it back..." Kiba stepped to the side and drew Neji's head backward until Neji twisted his hands in the cuffs and clung to the chains attaching them to the wooden beam. Neji's eyes were mostly open and aimed in Kiba's direction.

"Oh, now that's nice," Kiba praised, holding the pressure. "Now let's see what we got here..." Kiba traced the front of Neji's throat, scratched at it with his thumbnail, and moved onward to one of Neji's nipples, trapped beneath the mesh shirt. Kiba took up the nub between pinching fingers, toying with it. "What ya think about these, huh?"

Neji surprised Kiba by answering in a drunk-drugged monotone: "Not very... They're not very sensitive..."

"No?" Kiba asked, doubtful and getting more vigorous with the torment: pinch, pull, twist. Neji flinched with every motion. "Yer mouth says they ain't, but the rest 'a you says otherwise." Neji frowned, trying to shake his head, and Kiba made a thoughtful sound. "We should test it. Wait here, would you?"

Kiba suddenly and swiftly let Neji go, standing aside and panicking for a second over Neji regaining balance. Neji did just fine, staggering in a shuffle that quickly regained him solid footing. Kiba calmed himself down, kneeling next to the bin once again. He kept an eye on his friend, and a voice that Kiba imagined came from a tiny Tenzou with white wings and a riding crop reminded Kiba that Neji was counting on him. Believing in him, maybe in ways Neji didn't offer up to anybody else. Kiba gulped, hoping it wasn't audible, and told the teeny Tenzou that he had shitty timing and to shut the fuck up. Kiba was doing his best, here.

Snatching up two weighted nipple clamps, Kiba stood up and sauntered over to Neji. "Oh, now, this won't do," Kiba said in warning, and roughly, he yanked Neji's mesh shirt up to Neji's armpits. Palming both clamps, Kiba returned to torturing Neji's nipples, kissing Neji's shoulder while Kiba was at it. "Know what they say 'bout nipples, right?" Kiba asked, not allowing Neji to answer. "The more ya play with 'em... the more sensitive they get..." Kiba rhythmically pulled both of Neji's nipples away from Neji's body, stretching out the skin over and over, harsher... crueler. Neji stayed absolutely silent, head bowed, body shuddering, and tension snapping along his legs and arms. Kiba wondered at that, but allowed it, since he couldn't spare a chain of thoughts to link up some understanding at that particular moment.

"Do this enough, an' just a shirt brushin' these boys'll remind you they're there and what you want done to 'em. Flicked... pulled... pinched... sucked... bitten... pierced..."

"Ah..."

The syllable was practically inaudible, a toned breath, but Kiba heard it. "Oooh, you want 'em knicked, huh? Maybe bled a little?"

Neji violently shook his head no, and Kiba chuckled. "Okay, okay..." he soothed. "Just clamped, then. Sound better?"

Neji's breathing shook on the way out and in, and Kiba squeezed open the first clamp. He leaned to the side so he could see, and he set the pinchers so they'd get a hunk of nipple and surrounding skin. Without further warning, he let the clamp go, and it practically snapped onto Neji's flesh, the small, dangling weighted ball thumping on Neji's chest.

" _Nnn-nn...!"_ Neji trapped most of the noise against the roof of his mouth, from the sound of it, but his jaw flexed, and he wrenched his right arm, as though trying to get it free and down to undo the pressure. Unfortunately, that shifted the clamp's weight, and Neji made the same sound again, just louder.

"Oh, shit, sorry..." Kiba said without sincerity, hurrying to the other side. The edges of his vision were pulsing red and gray, he was so turned on, but he kept his hand steady while he set the second clamp. "I said slow, didn't I? My bad."

Neji actually tried to turn away, but he stopped himself, allowing Kiba to put the other clamp on him. Kiba, true to his word, took as long as he could getting the metal affixed to Neji. "Good," Kiba crooned. "Take it... little more... done." Kiba lightly flicked the second weight, and Neji pulled away from Kiba. His face was scrunched, and though Kiba sincerely liked that look on Neji, a dagger of concern sliced between Kiba's ribs.

"Hey now..." Kiba whispered, petting Neji's arms and sides. Then, louder and clearer: "Too much? You want 'em off?"

Neji shook his head again, but goddamn, the man wouldn't so much as squeak. That was getting equal parts frustrating and worrisome.

"You're doin' great, Neji," Kiba said, petting Neji's stomach and down to thighs. Weirdly, the praise buttoned Neji's lips even tighter, and Kiba had to clamp down on irritation. "Talk to me, Nej."

Neji did make a sound, then, but it was one that clearly told Kiba he was a crazy man for thinking Neji was going to take this moment to discuss tea and biscuits. "Nothin' to say?" Kiba asked. Neji did the negative head shake again, and he was wound up so tightly that Kiba thought Neji might snap a tendon or something. "Aw, you look like you got plenty you wanna tell me..." Kiba trailed hands south, over hipbones that jutted from Neji's body like Neji's inner demons were elbowing their way out. "How this feels, what you--" Kiba stopped running his mouth because Neji gasped. Really gasped. Like, spittle flew on that burst of air kind of gasp.

Kiba, so fixated on getting Neji to speak or moan or call safeword or whatever, barely noticed what his hands were doing except that they were moving, but the fingers of his right hand had threaded through Neji's well-kept pubic hair. It was practically the only hair on the guy, except for the waterfall flowing from his head and the fur on his legs. Even his underarms were sparsely decorated. Pattern or planning, Kiba didn't know, but what he did know was that when he gave a little tug to the hairs down the way, Neji's teeth clacked shut.

Okay... Kiba had definitely seen stranger things that got a man off. "Ooh ho..." he said, swirling his fingers in coarse curls. "Like a little 'a this?"

"Yeah," Neji answered, and oh man, was it breathy. Barely even sounded like Neji.

"Yah you do." Fighting down the urge to fuck Neji until he cried, as that would come later, one hoped, Kiba played with Neji's pubic hair, pulling and twisting the hairs together. He got his other hand up to Neji's armpit, and he inspected Neji's face as he pulled the hair there. Neji's eyebrows shot straight up, though his eyes and mouth remained closed, and that gave Kiba another idea, and just in time, too.

"More," Neji rasped. "Ki-Kiba... I... it's... but I..."

"I know," Kiba reassured Neji, hugging Neji briefly. Kiba didn't have to go anywhere to get the blindfold. It was hanging on a peg on the wall next to the Snowflake.

"Let's get this one first." Kiba didn't give Neji time to think, just slipped the blindfold over Neji's head and covered his eyes with it. Neji made fists, and Kiba thought he might be on to something.

"Aw, now, that looks sweet on you," Kiba said, tugging again at Neji's curls. "Wait right there. I got somethin' else you need."

It was the third trip to the bin, and as Kiba picked up the simple, black ball gag, he thought of something Tenzou had told them about gags. Most people thought that gags were meant to hold _in_ noise, contain it, and sometimes that's exactly what they were designed for and did. But sometimes with some gags, it seemed, they did the opposite of what you thought.

Gags didn't stop noise. Oh no. They gave the gagged person permission to _make_ it. If you couldn't speak, just grunt and groan, then you couldn't really say anything embarrassing, now could you? Hard to beg with your teeth embedded in plastic. And with your lips pried open and your tongue trying to keep itself out of your throat and not choke you to death, sounds just sort of happened. Nothing anybody could do... just a fact of the kinky life.

Terrible shame, that. Really.

Even knowing what he did and hoping what he hoped, it was a nervous short walk to Neji. He'd gone all tense again, but he relaxed a little when Kiba put a hand on Neji's hip. Kiba petted Neji, making little shushing sounds, and Kiba wrapped his arms around his friend, ball gag in front of Neji's blindfolded face. To date, Neji hadn't been gagged, at least... not in Kiba's presence. So here went nothing.

"I know ya need somethin' else," Kiba said in Neji's ear. For some reason, Kiba had little desire to be harsh with Neji. Probably had to do with that tenderness rearing up earlier, which still thrummed inside Kiba, and Kiba wasn't one to question his instincts in the middle of a scene. So he went with soft tones and warm embraces. "I know ya like my hands on you, know you like the feel of gettin' bound..." Kiba paused for Neji's tiny whimper. He nosed Neji's face. "Somethin' to say?"

"...like it," Neji said, and his voice trembled almost as much as the rest of him.

"Yeah? Make you feel good?" Kiba pressed, needing some reassurance more than he'd ever thought he would on his own turf with a guy he'd known for years.

"...helpless..." Neji whispered, his breath tripping a few beats, hitching, and Kiba wasn't sure he'd heard right until Neji kept going: "Makes... I feel... helpless..."

"Aw, yeah..." Kiba squeezed Neji, nuzzled at him. "Feels nice, don't it?"

"Uh huh," Neji managed, and he mashed his lips together, as though keeping in words or sounds or both all over again.

"Neji," Kiba murmured, shifting to get the gag closer to target. "Got somethin' that'll help with that. Keep you feelin' that way... let you not have to fight it so much..." Neji started to pant through his nose, great heaves of breath rocking his body.

Kiba brushed the ball against Neji's mouth. "Open up, sweetheart. C'mon... you can do it..."

For a few suspended seconds, Kiba wasn't sure Neji would let him do this. Neji's jaw pulsed, teeth gritting again and again. Kiba waited, holding Neji and the ball to Neji's lips, and when Neji gave, it was sudden. Neji opened wide, and Kiba seized the chance and pushed the gag into Neji's mouth.

And Neji... _moaned._

"Good, Neji... real good." Kiba fastened the strap snug behind Neji's head, and Neji whined. "God..." Kiba whispered, unable to help himself, and Neji started pulling on the cuffs, rattling the chains and arching toward Kiba, who could not fucking believe that what he'd done had actually worked, and who was having trouble staying upright with all the blood in his dick. He stroked himself through his jeans, kissing Neji's shoulder.

"Fuckin' beautiful," Kiba whispered. He pried open Neji's fist and put an oversized bouncy ball in Neji's palm. "Drop it if you need to," Kiba instructed, but the words were practically lost under Neji's groan-grunt-grit symphony.

"Oh fuck yeah, keep that up," Kiba said, winding Neji's hair around his fist again. "Fuckin' love it. C'mon, gorgeous, sing for me." Kiba slid down Neji's body, touching everything he could and yanking Neji's hair as he went. The quality of Neji's sounds changed as his neck bent, and Kiba flung an arm across Neji's hips, kissing and sucking at Neji's ass cheek. He wasn't entirely sure what the hell he was even doing, plans getting fried by the hot and steamy second, but Kiba didn't give a damn. _This_ was working, and mother of all fuck, Neji felt so damned good in his arms, under his lips, between his teeth.

Kiba licked at the top of Neji's cleft, and Neji strained into the sensation with such force that he knocked into Kiba's chin and upset Kiba's balance. Kiba laughed, surprised and delighted, and he smacked Neji's ass before he gave it two seconds of thought. Above Kiba, Neji choked, and he clawed at the chains for a grip.

"Wanna hurt a little, gorgeous?" Kiba called, spanking Neji again. He didn't do it hard, because he knew Neji did not, in all sincerity, really like pain. But if Kiba hadn't known that, he'd sure as shit be fooled right about now. Neji danced up onto his tiptoes, but kept his ass in Kiba's face.

"Or maybe you just want 'a little 'a this?" Kiba smacked the shit out of Neji's hip, grabbed the pink skin, and wrenched Neji's cheeks apart. He held on to Neji's hair and swiped his tongue over Neji's asshole.

Now, Kiba wasn't sure, as his skills interpreting ballgagged speech weren't nearly as honed as he wanted them to be, but that sure as shit sounded like, " _Oh my fucking God!"_ to him. He hit Neji again, his hand smarting with the impact, and dug into Neji's ass with relish. The pucker under his tongue was so tight as to be impossible to breach, though it pulsed for him when he teased it with licks and digs. He shoved Neji's legs further apart, sucking at Neji's hole and dragging teeth across the rim, and Neji's breathing was watery, now. Kiba drew away, letting go of Neji's hair and smacking Neji with that hand on the other side.

"Don't move," Kiba ordered, and he was happy as all get out that Neji couldn't see him stagger to the bin. He picked up two more cuffs and clasps, a medium-sized dildo, a handful of condoms, and lube, and somehow got back to Neji without dropping anything. He stood there for a second, staring at Neji, drooling around the gag with cock jutting out, cut and graceful and slightly curved at the end, and it, too, was oozing clear liquid from the tip. While Kiba watched, a line of pre-cum started to head for the floorboards, and Neji inadvertently encouraged its path, rutting against pure air.

"Oooh, I wanna fuck you," Kiba said, and he considered dropping everything including his jeans, and burying himself balls-deep in Neji's ass, but Neji shut up and went oddly still, and it was strange enough to get Kiba's head back in the game. Kiba had Neji right where Kiba wanted him, and Kiba might not ever be able to recreate these circumstances ever again. Over his dead and rotting body would he squander this chance on something like getting off. He'd rubbed one out before Neji had arrived at his apartment, and if the need got too bad, Kiba could jerk off on Neji and then flog the cum off Neji's skin.

Kiba got sucker punched by volcanic heat. Flogging Neji... like this... Oh mother of all motherfucking mercy...

"But I won't," Kiba said, bending to Neji's feet. He curled down and licked and kissed Neji's anklebone, and Kiba got another cuff in place. Neji had his head resting on his arm, and he quietly groaned through the other cuffing.

"Now walk yer ass backward," Kiba ordered, and Neji slid his feet along the floor. "More... more... stop." He smacked Neji's calf. "Bring 'em closer." When Neji's feet were shoulder-distant apart and lined up with the loops on the extra piece of wood Kiba had attached to the Snowflake's lowest strut, he hooked the cuffs to the wooden cross-piece with a grunt of satisfaction.

"Good. Don't want you goin' nowhere, now do we?" Kiba stood up, smacked Neji's ass, and pressed a finger between Neji's cheeks over Neji's asshole. Neji stiffened, and Kiba swept in close. "We need to get somethin' up in here?" Kiba massaged Neji's entrance. "Fill you up so yer ready for me to fuck you right when I decide it's time?"

Neji's whine had a weird tone to it; one Kiba couldn't interpret. He let his hand fall away from Neji. "Or maybe you'd like that too much, huh? Get off too quick 'fore we're done?"

Kiba barely had time to finish his quip, and Neji was straining to find Kiba's touch, again. Kiba caressed Neji's ass, struck it so lightly as to be a tap, not a spank, but it wasn't until Kiba's finger returned to Neji's hole that Neji moaned again for Kiba.

"So you do need somethin' in here," Kiba said, and when Neji didn't respond, Kiba smacked the crap out of Neji's backside. He was going to have to cut that shit out if he wanted to feel his palms tomorrow. Get gloves or graduate to flogger, but the last strike had been worth it.

Neji very clearly said, "Yes" around the gag, nodding for emphasis.

"Huh," Kiba said, as though mulling it over like he didn't already have a toy at the ready. "But not me, eh?" Kiba nibbled Neji's neck and slipped the tip of his finger inside Neji, who sucked a wickedly sharp inhale. "What's the matter? Too good fer my dick? Or maybe you think it'll break ya... Ain't gonna be easy on you, no fuckin' way. You don't need easy. Won't want it, neither, second I'm buried in you goin' at ya... Nah... But then, dunno. Maybe it's somethin' else... Maybe..." Kiba wasn't sure where he had been going with the teasing, but in a sudden flash of sadistic inspiration, he switched gears.

"Maybe," Kiba husked, fingering Neji nice and shallow. "You want somebody else in you. Somebody you been lustin' after... wantin' fer a long time... an' you just recently figured all that out..."

Kiba had never heard somebody breathe so hard and so brokenly. Kiba chewed his lip, eying the ball still trapped in Neji's white-knuckled hand. Neji's breath turned into whimpers then whines and finally groans. Jerkily, he rocked backward into Kiba's finger, and Kiba swallowed some very strange combination of heat, worry, anxiety, and exaltation.

"Yeah, you want him to fuck you good, don't you?" Kiba hadn't realized until that moment that he wasn't sure if the object of Neji's desire was male or female, but he must have had the gender correct, because Neji's next cry made Kiba thankful that he'd planned this visit for when his neighbors were at work or school.

"Thought so." Kiba withdrew his finger, bent, and picked up the dildo, condom, and lube. "Good thing he's right here, sweetheart," Kiba said, commentary running away with him. But Neji's breathing ratcheted higher, Neji's skin flushed a deep, rosy crimson, and he shoved his ass out, inviting an incoming invasion.

"Oh, that's real nice. He likes that... you got him hard and crazy for you..." Kiba tore open the condom, rolled it on the dildo, and slicked it up. He'd never been more thankful that this toy had a supposed realistic fleshy feel and molded balls at the base. Those would be awesome to smack against Neji's ass. "You want him?"

Another, " _Oh God yes"_ poured around the gag, but the sincerity this time tugged at Kiba's heart, not his cock. There was that tenderness, again, washing over Kiba and making his ears ring. Kiba put the covered tip of the fake dick to Neji's entrance and stepped nearer, keeping the slim tube of lube in his free hand. He slid an arm around Neji and held the blinded, gagged, bound, shackled man. Neji was shaking, large muscles jumping beneath the strain.

"A'right, sweetheart," Kiba said softly, chin hooked over Neji's arm. "Let 'im love you good..." Kiba began to push the toy inside Neji, and was met with Neji's shout and with monumental bodily resistance. Kiba had expected that, and he bent his knees to wrap his arm around Neji and squeeze more lube onto the dildo's head. He kissed near Neji's spine, used the toy to smear the lube, and tried again, pushing and breaching and pausing.

"There now," Kiba said, soothing but insistent. "Let it in, sweetheart... relax what you can... I got you... the chains got you..." Kiba kissed behind Neji's ear, the skin dripping with sweat. "And... _he's_ got you, too."

Neji groaned, long and loud, and Kiba gained enough depth to start to thrust. He kept it slow but steady, nudging at the point of impossibility with every inward glide. "Good... real good... ah, yeah, watchin' you take that is fuckin' hot as hell... c'mon, sweetheart... little more 'n he'll be hittin' sweet... get you groanin' but good... Deeper, now... let it go... let it--"

The angle shifted, the toy slipped into Neji like Neji was trying to suck it out of Kiba's hand, and Neji's cry rung the rafters. "Aww, yeah," Kiba called, beginning to fuck Neji in earnest. "There you go. That's it... take it for me... take all of it."

" _Mmph... nnnmph! Mmmgh... Mmooh..._ " Neji's inarticulate wails came with every plunge, faster and faster, until Kiba was dripping with exertion, and his grip on both the toy and Neji were slippery.

And it was better than just goddamned good, it was incredible; the kind of thing Kiba would remember for a long time, but a vague sense of wariness was ruining the moment. Unease slithered in Kiba's guts, and it tasted a bit like wounded pride and a bit like the fear of losing control, and though Kiba didn't understand all that, he let his instinct burn away the conviction to be gentle. He shoved the toy home. He let himself grab Neji's hair and wrap a cruel, vicious grip about Neji's cock. And Kiba snarled in Neji's ear: "You forget who was here with you, bitch?"

Though Kiba couldn't see, from the wrinkles on Neji's forehead, he thought Neji's eyes flew wide under the blindfold. "That's right," Kiba growled. "I called it how I see it. _Bitch._ You ain't my slut. You ain't my whore. You definitely ain't no boy 'a mine. Just my bitch. Who likes cock in his ass and hands on his dick... an' you know what I do to bitches who forget who's fuckin' 'em?"

Neji didn't have enough motion to answer, so Kiba contented himself to watch spit fly with the force of Neji's breathing through the holes in the ball gag. Kiba bit Neji's ear. "I flog their fuckin' pricks 'til they cry or come, that's what I goddamned do." Neji wheezed all sorts of sounds that might have been important syllables, but Kiba couldn't tell. He watched the ball in Neji's hand, he shoved away from Neji's side, and he nudged the toy deep inside Neji. "Hold it in." Kiba started to let the toy go, and it began to slip. "I said hold it in!" Kiba barked, and Neji's ass cheeks bunched and strained and clamped onto the toy. When Kiba let go this time, the dildo stayed mostly in place, though likely not for long.

"Good. Nice." Kiba flew into action, unbuckling Neji's ankles. That done, he stood up fast enough that his head swam, and he shook himself to clear it. The floggers were on the wall nearest the curtain, and he snatched up a short one with faux-leather tails. Easy to clean and easier to throw at very narrow targets.

Kiba spanked Neji's hip. "Turn around," he ordered, but Neji didn't move or make a sound. "I said turn the fuck around!" Kiba barked, and this time, Neji twisted the chains above his head and began to obey, but all else evaporated when the bouncy ball hit the floor and thudded around the room.

"Shit," Kiba cursed, dropping the flogger and immediately going for the gag. Neji was already trying to speak as Kiba pried the ball from between Neji's teeth. "You all--"

"Fucker slipped!" Neji yelled, and oh man, did the guy have a set of lungs when he was angry.

"Oh," Kiba said, pausing while his brain and his panic caught up to one another. It didn't take long. "Then goddamnit, turn around!"

Neji slurred things that might have been words and some of them definitely might have been curses, but Kiba focused on manhandling Neji so that they faced one another. No sooner did Kiba have Neji's upper back braced on the wooden beams than the toy shot out of Neji's ass.

"Fuck!" Neji screeched, a pissed-off wildcat, and Kiba jumped. He couldn't get himself together enough to comfort Neji, so he stroked Neji's cock instead, which proved suitably distracting. Neji's mouth flew open, his entire body undulated, and quickly his cussing devolved into a solid wall of, " _Oooh..."_

Kiba scooped the flogger off the floor, jacking Neji off, swift and true. "Nice, huh?" Kiba said. And then, at exactly the same time, he slid his hand off the end of Neji's dick and followed through with the flogger's swing, landing the tails dead-on Neji's swollen shaft.

" _Shit-Christ-Jesus_!" Neji wheezed at top volume.

"Louder!" Kiba yelled, flogging Neji's dick again. Not at anything near full strength, and not with a toy that had much weight to it at all, but Kiba knew from experience that it stung-struck oh-so-fucking good.

" _Aaaahn-fuck_!" Neji cried, dancing and trying to get away.

Kiba grabbed Neji's balls, stepping around so he could still swing with his right arm. "I need to tie you down to take this shit, bitch?"

"Fuck you!" Neji spat.

Kiba gave Neji's nuts a mean squeeze. Neji writhed, and whoa, damn, did that turn Kiba on. "Nah... fuck _you_ , sweetheart." Kiba set to pleasuring Neji's sac, not hurting it, and he landed the flogger's tails on Neji's cock again and again, varying the rhythm and thrilling to the shrill of Neji's trilling calls to God and messengers of mercy. Kiba ran off at the mouth, spouting God only knew what, and _this_ felt right; this was the kind of sweet that made Kiba throb like his entire body was an orgasm waiting to happen. He was a dick, engorged, he was a monster incarnate, he was a master most sinful...

...and he was a dude most shocked, because when Kiba landed a blow that caught a tail to Neji's tip, Neji screamed and started to shoot.

"Holy fuck," Kiba said in awe, hastily jerking Neji off and watching jet after jet of cum spray down the room. Neji was making the most incredibly erotic moan-gasp-shivery sound Kiba had ever heard, and Neji just kept coming... and coming... and Kiba thought he was going to get off in nothing but pure empathy, but Neji pumped into Kiba's hand, caught the band of the blindfold on the wooden beam behind him, and dislodged the thing, shaking it off with a violent jerk of his head. He fixed hauntingly heated eyes on Kiba, parted rouge-red-abused lips, and licked them. Slowly.

"Kiba," Neji rasped, still gasping from what had to be the longest orgasm Kiba had ever witnessed, "Fuck... me... _right the fuck now."_

Slamming his mouth to Neji's, they kissed one another even more senseless, and Kiba tore off the nipple clamps and undid the buckles on the wrist cuffs. On the second one, he was too slow, and Neji yanked out of it before it was completely undone. Neji, unsteady, fell to the ground, and Kiba followed, flipping Neji onto Neji's belly. Kiba undid his jeans, Neji rose up onto all fours, and Kiba almost tore the condom itself in the opening, not just the packaging. He snapped it onto his dick, still unrolling as he lined up his tip to Neji's pink hole, and Kiba shoved inside sweet, yielding heat with a broken groan that he wouldn't have recognized as his, except it was his ribcage it rattled. Kiba grabbed Neji's hips, fucking like he was on deathrow with three seconds to live, and Neji was clawing the floor, scrabbling for Kiba's leg, and only Neji's painful yelp made Kiba slow down long enough to upend more lube on his shaft.

In the time it took to reapply, however, Neji spun onto his back. He kicked Kiba in the chest with both feet with precisely the right amount of force to send Kiba sprawling, and then Neji was on top of Kiba, biting lips and sinking onto Kiba's cock.

"Oooh... holy..." Kiba slammed into Neji, who gasped and clung to Kiba.

"Shit... _shit_!" Neji wailed, jerking himself off and planting his feet so Kiba could fuck up and into him faster, smoother... brutal and battering and gonna-come-screaming perfect.

" _Nnnnah -- harder_!" Neji demanded, and Kiba tried to break his own back pounding into Neji, who gasped and cried and hissed where he was curled over Kiba's torso. Neji tossed hair, glared at Kiba, face crumpling, and when their eyes met again, Neji began to whimper-whine-shout every time Kiba bottomed-out.

"Faster!" Neji ordered. "Fuck me faster!" He flung his head to one side, and his fist was a blur on his cock. Seconds... a minute... maybe more... and Kiba was tightening, tingling, going taut and tensioning, losing rhythm and beginning to roar.

"Oh God..." Neji wailed, "Oh _Christ_... oh gonna come... oh my... oh shit... shit... _shiiiiit!"_

Kiba barreled into Neji, and he sobbed when Neji's body clamped around Kiba's spurting dick. Kiba weakly thrust, spending himself with grayed-out vision and arms that automatically reached for Neji and caught Neji when the guy fell, limp and gasping on top of Kiba.

"Fuck," Kiba commented, kissing Neji's sweaty hair. "I mean... fuck..." He ran a hand over his face, wiping his eyes, and pure giddiness kicked Kiba in the ribs. He started to laugh, and once he started, he couldn't really stop, and Neji, after a chuckling round or two, joined Kiba in the delirium of Scene aftermath.

 

***

"I think it started to go well when you were trying to kill me with a single look for pulling on your damned necklace," Neji said with a sly smile. He was stretched out in all his glorious nudity on the couch, head on a pillow in Kiba's lap.

"Really? Thought it was more when I started pullin' on yer hair," Kiba countered, stroking said hair over Neji's ear. They'd mopped up, toweled off, and fallen into this happy heap on the sofa. It was dim and warm and smelled like sex: Kiba's version of bliss.

Neji grunted. "Yeah. That is a thing of mine."

"I noticed."

"You exploited it well."

"Aw, shucks."

Neji reared back and elbowed Kiba, mostly missing, and Kiba ran a hand over Neji's bare skin until Neji settled, again. "Next time we should bind my hair... do some rope work with it incorporated," Neji said thoughtfully.

"Sure," Kiba replied, only slightly strained, and Jesus, damn, he wasn't getting hard again, was he? No way...

"And after watching you flog others, I wouldn't mind experiencing it myself, now that I know we do, in fact, work like this," Neji said.

Kiba shifted and kept petting Neji. "Tie ya up, bind the hair, and flog you 'til ya come. Again. Can do, ace."

Neji chuckled. "Yes, that was a surprise."

"I know, right?" Kiba said, excited and amazed all over again. "And you got off _twice_. In like... five minutes. How the fuck...?"

"I have no idea," Neji said, sounding as awe-stricken thrilled as Kiba was. "Done it multiple times in a row before, but never with such quick turn around." Neji rolled toward Kiba, casting his gaze low and then ticking it up to Kiba's face in a sultry, smoldering come-hither. "Have some magic in that cock of yours, don't you, Kiba?"

"Maybe," Kiba got wit enough to reply.

"Mm, felt like it, when you were slamming into my ass." Neji faced away again, sighing.

"Shit, Nej." Kiba laughed, weakly. "Yer too fuckin' sexy to live, sometimes."

If Neji could purr, Kiba thought he'd be doing it right about now. "I know," Neji said.

"And a smug bastard all the time."

"I know." Neji was smiling.

Kiba rubbed Neji's hip. "Where'd all this gusto go when you got here, man? Was like dealin' with an alien clone Neji."

"Yes..." Neji shrugged the shoulder not resting on the pillow and Kiba. He mulled over his words for Kiba's slow count of ten, but Kiba waited, dying to hear what Neji had to say. "I got nervous," Neji said thoughtfully. "I thought it'd be easier, since I suspected that you, out of anyone in our play group, could be the one whom I could trust to... get me there. Make me feel a little less like a failure when it came to the bending knee department."

"Ya ain't no failure, Neji."

"Even so..." Neji played with Kiba's shin, tracing it. "There was more pressure to say and do the right thing than I thought there'd be, so as not to fuck up our chances, and I..." Another shrug and then a snort. "Then you said that bit about Sasuke..."

"I thought that might do the trick, yeah."

"Well, nobody wants to be on his level of denial." Neji shuddered in distaste and maybe what passed for Neji's version of sympathy. "Anyway, now it should go much smoother, since I was right, and we are quite... compatible."

"Oh, so it's easier 'cause _you_ were right, huh?" Kiba teased. "Ya know, I was the one who got yer ass on board."

Neji didn't answer at first, and Kiba felt a fist closing tighter around his guts. "Nej--"

"I knew I could trust you, Kiba," Neji said, softly, and Kiba's internal pressure valve released. "I've watched," Neji continued, "And you are excellent at what you do, intuiting in others and adapting to any game or taking any measure necessary to get both you and your partner where you want to be."

Kiba might have blushed, but it was dark in the room, which meant, thank God, that Neji wouldn't see. "I was a little worried at that part where I was talkin' like... ya know... your man was here, right? And... pretendin' that the toy... was..."

"Yes. That." Neji shivered and reached down to adjust himself. "Surprising, but good, Kiba. And it was excellent the way you broke out of the fantasy with the military command voice and insults. Woke me up and made resurfacing easier."

"Oh," Kiba said. He wasn't sure that'd been what he meant to do, wasn't too sure he'd _meant_ to do anything except follow the orders that his gut had been screaming at him, but he was glad as shit that it'd all gone down peacefully for Neji. "Cool," Kiba said, rubbing Neji's arm.

"Though next time, perhaps it could just be us in the room? No phantoms."

"Done," Kiba agreed. "No problem." Kiba hesitated. "You like the gag?"

"I did," Neji answered, huskily.

Kiba was reminded why he loved rehashing a scene right after it was done. Made for excellent foundation, sometimes, for round two. "Oh hey," Kiba said, remembering something. "How come ya didn't want me fuckin' you, but were good with the toy, there, in the middle?"

"I thought that once you were in me that it'd be over." Neji hesitated, and his voice dropped in volume and tone when he next spoke, "Didn't want it to be done... wanted it to last."

"Hey," Kiba said, tenderly, and he tried to turn Neji's head toward him, but Neji resisted, sighed, and was up and off the couch before Kiba could rub together two words of protest.

"I should be going," Neji said, picking up the mesh shirt, which they'd discarded after they'd crawled out of the playroom.

"How come?" Kiba demanded, and he didn't care that he sounded hurt. Neji's sudden departure stung.

"We fulfilled the bargain, rather successfully, and I do have a life outside of Scene, you know." Neji found his pants, but Kiba snatched them from Neji's hands. Neji cocked a brow at Kiba, lips pursed, but he had that caged-animal look about the eyes again.

"Nobody could forget all you do, Neji, though I figure most would have trouble listin' it all. It's gettin' late, it's shitty weather..." Kiba shrugged. "Stay for dinner why don't you?"

"You want me to stay," Neji asked, and Kiba didn't pay any mind to the way his tone made it a condescending statement, not a question.

"I do." And God only knew what made Kiba say it, but the words were out of his lips in a heartbeat: "And so would he."

Kiba might as well have smacked Neji across the face, his expression was so stricken and horrified and astonished. "Wha... what? Who do you--"

"Don't do that." Kiba drew closer and lifted his arms, lacing his fingers behind Neji's neck, his thumbs petting Neji's jaw. Neji flinched but didn't fight him. "Don't act like I don't know somethin' 'bout you, 'cause I do. And don't act like I'm gonna use that somethin' to hurt you, 'cause I won't, I shown you that I won't, and it hurts my feelin's when you pull that shit. You trusted me enough to tie ya up, gag you, hit you, fuck you, and hold you after it was done. You trusted me enough to tell me you love somebody." Kiba searched Neji's face. "So trust me when I tell you that I get that you need walls, you got a helluva life out there, but you don't gotta hold those walls in here with me. This night don't gotta be over just yet. You can breathe a while longer. And..." Kiba had a second of fluttering doubt and shame and jealousy, but he made himself keep going. "And this guy... Nej, it ain't a matter 'a you not bein' good enough for him. Way I see things, it's a matter 'a him bein' worthy 'a _you_."

Neji's eyes gleamed wetly in the purple-blue-green glow spilling from the playroom. He swallowed. "Thanks for the fire. I didn't get cold. It was nice."

"Yer welcome, sweetheart."

"I'm not your sweetheart, Kiba," Neji said, pulling out of Kiba's grip and wiping his nose on his arm. Thoroughly undignified and completely human, that gesture, and Kiba was enchanted.

"Nah, I know," Kiba said. "It's a temporary title 'til ya tell Lee how ya feel 'bout him."

Neji gave a mighty, derisive snort. "Jesus, no. It's not Lee."

"Oh, thank God," Kiba bemoaned in genuine relief.

Neji laughed, sudden and bright, and he slugged Kiba in the arm. "Asshole."

"Look, can't blame a man for tryin' to figure it out!" Kiba protested, following Neji across the living room. "Where you goin'?"

"To get a shower. You stink."

"What the hell? What's me smellin' less than rosy gotta do with you showerin'?"

"Motivation, dear Kiba." Neji tossed a smirk over a shoulder. "Thought if I joined you, it might be inspiration enough for you to pay attention to basic hygiene."

Kiba laughed, following Neji into the bathroom. "You ain't God, Neji. Don't expect miracles."

Neji grabbed Kiba by the cock. "Not God, but I am omnipotent, and I bet I could show you a thing or two you'd like."

"Oh yeah?" Kiba said, low in his throat and eying Neji as Neji turned on the shower spray. "Guess we'll see then, won't we?"

"Yes, Kiba," Neji said, all sweetness and kind, the affectionate inflection a beautiful sign. "I think we will."

"Good, Neji," Kiba said against his friend's warm lips. "Good."

 

~*~

 

A Bit of Something Extra... I usually draw super rough sketches - for my eyes only, until now :P - of places/things so that I don't have to guess where shit is when writing. Nothing worse than being all caught up in a fic and suddenly, "Wait a second... didn't she just say that the THINGAMAJIG was on the LEFT wall?!"

 

So here you go - enjoy. I make no apologies for my terrible drawing skillz. I leave art to the amazing artists and I will forever marvel at their magic.

 

**Author's Note:**

> ∞ Story is dedicated to Ddreams, who kicked this story from seedling into full-on forest. Much love & hair porn!
> 
> ∞ This one was written way, WAY after Kiba's speech pattern and personality emerged in Rhythm & Bruise. You don't have to read that one to get this one, but just, ya know, FYI. :)
> 
> ∞ For all information about Monoshizukanohi that you never knew you wanted to know, click [HERE](http://demented-dee.livejournal.com/12226.html).
> 
> ∞ I don’t own any characters in any fandom; I just entice them into doing things they never thought possible. The originals though, if present, are all mine. I also own the world, Monoshizukanohi, and all the places therein. 
> 
> ∞ Some stories have audio read by me, myself, and I – and occasional special guests! All audio can be found [RIGHT HERE](https://www.4shared.com/dir/37719989/28e7765d/Audio_Readings.html#dir=Unh-MNl5)
> 
> ∞ Want more? Check out my other stories here or head over to my [Demented-Ink headquarters](https://www.demented-ink.com/). It’s a one-stop shop for everything I’m up to. You’ll find [Kelly Wyre’s Lair](https://www.demented-ink.com/kelly-wyre-lair) on the Port-of-Call menu. Under that name, I write the [New Amsterdam series](http://kelly-wyre.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-world-of-new-amsterdam.html), as well as many other [LGBTQ-friendly books and novellas](https://www.amazon.com/Kelly-Wyre/e/B00IURAYJM), both singly and in collaboration with other authors. I also [vlog](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP732llZpxt6YAD4-9-pwww), [blog](https://www.demented-ink.com/blog), and generally live, breathe, and sleep all things Story. Some projects are just starting, so pardon my construction dust. And make sure to stop by [Smoke Signals](https://www.demented-ink.com/smoke-signals) and keep in touch!
> 
> ∞ Special flamboyantly flaming uber mucho thanks to BestRobinEvr for all the help making this fanfiction migration possible. Literally could not have done it without her. 
> 
> Much light, more love, and many, many baked goods.  
> ♥Dee


End file.
